He fought in the First Balkan War. In 1921, he established his own private school of wrestling in Sofia. He died in 1925 and was buried in his home town of Gorna Oryahovitsa.
Since 1963, a yearly tournament in the name of Nikola Petrov has been organized in Bulgaria. In 1998, he was proclaimed an Honoured Citizen of Gorna Oryahovitsa.
In his 25-year wrestling career, he was defeated once by Marijan Matijević.